Every gamer has their own story to tell about how they got into their favourite game. Whether this be that they were recommended it by a friend, or simply stumbled across it on their travels around the internet… or their local video game store, there’s always some story to how they came across their favourite title.
Because there’s not much going on within the World of Warcraft community that I think is newsworthy right now (although all the datamined models are looking pretty exciting right now! I really want this fox mount!), I thought I’d share how I got into the big, wide world (worlds?) of massively multiplayer online role playing games!
My First Introduction
Although I’d been playing games throughout my childhood, I never got into (or even knew about) MMOs until I met my boyfriend. Although he didn’t play them much at the time we started dating, he would often say that he thought that I would enjoy them, pitching the Guild Wars series of games to me.
One day, after about a year of him suggesting I play it, I finally bit the bullet and bought Guild Wars Prophecies. The game had already been out about 2 years by the time I’d got it, but that didn’t bother me one bit.
I jumped right in and created my first ever MMO character; a mage who specialised in fire magic. I spent hours following questlines and getting killed by pesky Grawls… often venturing too far during the pre-searing instance and coming face to face with higher level Charr.
I ploughed my way through the campaign, my favourite area being the Maguuma Jungle and the eventually completed it with the help of my college friend Mike (who you should totally go subscribe to on YouTube…)
I got all the campaigns that were released and eventually caved in and got the Eye of the North expansion pack. By then, though, I could feel myself falling out of love with the game. I’d log on, only to find no one wanted to group anymore and that the hero characters could boost anyone throughout the game without really needing any other help from real people.
But then another game was brought to my attention… one which would suck me in even more than Guild Wars had. It’s name was World of Warcraft.
Venturing Into Azeroth
Jordan introduced me to WoW, just like he had done with Guild Wars, but as I quickly became hooked, he vowed never to show me another MMO again… and to be honest? I do think that he has kept his word.
There was something about the challenge of reaching level 70 that excited me. There were more areas to explore, dungeons and raids that required actual people to work together to complete.. and the customisation was so much more than I’d experienced in Guild Wars. I started out as a hunter, and now my main character at level 100 is also a hunter, albeit not the same one- my first one is still on my account, though!
My first hunter and her pet Clarence.
I was in an active guild who were all pretty close; I don’t think I’ve been in such a social, tight knit one since! I made friends and was enjoying every single moment I spent discovering Azeroth.
Ever since 2007, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft on and off; the novelty is still there, I think… I just don’t get enough time to play it. I still haven’t levelled a character from each class to 100 so there are still many roles I can learn about should I decide to.
I think that’s what made it stand out more for me than Guild Wars did; there’s always something else to do or another character to level- Guild Wars seemed a lot more limited, and I blame the decline in the multiplayer aspect on the fact that the game was instanced rather than open world like WoW- you can’t just jump in and help/ talk to other people in Guild Wards unless you were in an outpost, as well as the introduction of heroes.
Of course, Guild Wars 2 was released not too long ago, and I did give that a try too. It did fix a lot of what in the end ruined Guild Wars for me, but I think the reasons I ended up being disappointed with it deserves its own blog… so watch this space.
…and that’s my MMO story!
I’d love to hear your stories of how you got into your favourite games, so comment below or head over to my Facebook and Twitter and let me know!
Excuse This Honesty 
Reblogged this on (no longer) pick3d last and commented:
Great idea for a post and a fun journey. Might have to post mine up sometime. It started with Lineage (the original) :)
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I’d definitely love to read it! Some people have interesting stories which need to be told!
Never played Lineage, but I know a few people who did! Sounded like an awesome game for its time!
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Nice post! :)
I got introduced to MMOs (and World of Warcraft was the first) by my boyfriend, too. Though we both got into Guild Wars at the same time then (after Nightfall had come out). WoW was my first MMO and I used Guild Wars to get away from WoW whenever I needed a break. :) But I definitely agree: World of Warcraft always seems to have something I could do. I’m not playing it anymore, but I still have fond memories.
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Ah, I love it when people have similar stories! I think Nightfall was one of the better campaigns (although incredibly frustrating at times!).
I really wish that Guild Wars had a little bit more in the way of content. There’s only so many times you can sit in Lions Arch and run characters to and from Ascalon!
At the moment, you’re really not missing much on WoW… and I don’t think it will ever be as good as it was, sadly! :(
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I’d probably have a ton to catch up with since I haven’t played in ages. I did return shortly after Mists of Pandaria had released, but didn’t even get to max level. But well, I can’t really justify the subscription as I hardly have time for my other games and sticking with “free” ones is the better option for me. Still, I miss WoW sometimes. Especially the silly things to do like fishing and archaeology and pet battles. :p
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Yeah, I definitely think the subscription is way too overpriced, especially for the content we’ve had recently; I doubt Blizzard will ever make it free to play, though – which is sad!
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Nice idea for a post. I may never have played MMOs if it weren’t fro a friend of mine introducing me to UO in high school. Then a few years later the jerk introduced me to Lineage II and for a while I think I forgot what the sun looked like. From there I found my own way to WoW but after a few school holidays of binging I decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to continue with it since self-control was not a strong skill of mine as a teenager. Which is a shame really, I really loved the depth and scale of it compared to Lineage II, the art style of which wore a little thin after a while. Still its interesting to hear about other people’s gaming stories. Keep up the good work, consider yourself followed.
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Oh, you definitely don’t need to tell me about self-control… I think I have a serious problem with that, too! I always feel like I should give up playing it for a while- and I do-I just end up always going back to WoW and playing for hours on end!
Thanks so much for the feedback and the follow too! You’re awesome!
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Haha no worries my pleasure. I think I went back to WoW a couple times in university but it never really stuck. I think I just wanted to beat my buddy at another game. Thanks for the follow as well. You too are awesome!
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